Citadel #6

Citadel #13

These photographic collages belong to a series that looks at the South African urban landscape, and in the case of this specific typology, inner city redevelopment.

Our cities are still fractured by apartheid and modernist urban planning ideology. These divisions are being exacerbated by a trend in the global cities of the south to redevelop formerly problematic precincts in or near the city centre.

Through the investment of private capital, secured areas are constructed on platforms of fear, crime and “creative spin”. Public space is gradually sanitised through neoliberal gentrification and private control.

These class based enclaves are fortified with walls, booms, electric fences, private security and 24-hour surveillance. In this sense, they are like medieval citadels – secured city-states to keep the fear out and comfort in.

* * *

Two of these Citadels were selected for inclusion in the 2015 GRID International Photography Biennial in Cape Town.